National Statistics Office

Labour Market and Information Society Statistics 

National Statistics Office
Lascaris
Valletta
VLT 2000
Malta

Job vacancy statistics (JVS) provide information on the level and structure of labour demand. The country transmits quarterly data on the number of job vacancies and the number of occupied posts and provides the quality report in line with the JVS framework regulation and the two implementing regulations: the implementing regulation on the definition of a job vacancy, the reference dates for data collection, data transmission specifications and feasibility studies, as well as the implementing regulation on seasonal adjustment procedures and quality reports.

The national Job Vacancy Survey is carried out using a sample survey amongst private enterprises, whilst administrative data is used with regards to public entities. Since 2017 the target population has been extended to include units employing 1 or more (full-time and part-time) employees and operating under NACE Rev. 2 Sections B-S. 

Data is collected on a quarterly basis where enterprises are asked to provide the number of employees and the number of active vacancies as at the 15th day of the end of quarter month. To date, results of this survey are not published at a national level; however main results derived from this data collection are published by Eurostat and may also be provided by NSO upon request.  For 2022, JVS transmissions covered units employing 1 or more persons.

A number of classifications are applied for this survey. These include NACE Rev 2, ISCO 08 (the International Standard Classification of Occupations) and NUTS (the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics).

The data covers all the economic activities defined by NACE Rev. 2, except agriculture, forestry and fishing activities (optional in the JVS framework regulation), and the activities of households as employers and the activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies.

A 'job vacancy' is defined as a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant:

(a) for which the employer is taking active steps and is prepared to take further steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise concerned; and

(b) which the employer intends to fill either immediately or within a specific period of time.

‘Active steps to find a suitable candidate’ include:

- notifying the job vacancy to the public employment services,

- contacting a private employment agency/head hunters,

- advertising the vacancy in the media (for example internet, newspapers, magazines),

- advertising the vacancy on a public notice board,

- approaching, interviewing or selecting possible candidates/potential recruits directly,

- approaching employees and/or personal contacts,

- using internships.

'Specific period of time’ refers to the maximum time the vacancy is open and intended to be filled. That period shall be unlimited; all vacancies for which active steps are continuing on the reference date shall be reported.

An 'occupied post’ means a paid post within the organisation to which an employee has been assigned.

The basic statistical unit for the data collection is the enterprise.

The statistical population used in the compilation of the job vacanacies statistics for the year 2022 includes enterprises which employ 1 or more employees. The target population includes all active units according to the national Business Register.  

The whole territory of the country.

Quarterly data available from Q1 2010 for enterprises employing 10 or more employees, whilst quarterly data for enterprises employing 1 or more employees is available from Q1 2017.

Not applicable

Incoming data is checked for consistency with data from previous quarters. In addition, whenever data is not in line with previous feedback, the National Statistics Office directly contacts the respondents via email or telephone in order to outline what has led to the identified discrepancies.

Calibration techniques are used to align sample characteristics with those pertaining to the target population.

Checks for consistency in the figures provided for occupied posts are carried out on a quarterly basis and imputations are made in cases where large discrepencies are found.

Optional

Transmitted information relates to units employing 1 or more persons.

The sampling error shown above is calculated on the total number of vacancies as per reference date based on the employment size of the enterprise within the private sector. Public sector entities were omitted from the calculation since information relating to both employment and vacancies is obtained through administrative sources. 

The standard error is usually expressed as a margin of error which quantifies uncertainty about a survey result and expresses the amount of random sampling error in a survey's results. This is normally associated with a statistical level of confidence in such a way as to make it possible for us to calculate confidence intervals of the form estimate ± margin of error. Then, the margin of error may be calculated as 1.96 times the standard error on either side of the estimate. A 95% confidence level is considered.

The sampling design used for this survey (stratified random sample) is taken into account for the computation of sampling errors. Estimates with a percentage margin of error greater than 40% are normally omitted from the respective tables as these represent highly volatile and unreliable survey estimates. Other estimates with a relatively high but acceptable margin of error are flagged accordingly.

The national JVS is conducted amongst units employing 1 or more persons. The over-coverage rate is therefore being assumed to be the proportion of units which are made up of self-employed or do not have any employees on their payroll. The quarterly over-coverage rate for 2022 is provided below:

Quarter 1: 4.1%

Quarter 2: 2.8% 

Quarter 3: 4.1%

Quarter 4: 4.0%

Annual average: 3.8%

0.7% of units in the sample were also covered by administrative sources in 2022.

Measurement errors which might be attributed to the JVS relate to the fact that a number of respondents might be providing the total number of vacancies rather than the number of active vacancies during the reference period. From 2017, this office changed the data collection tool and added a further breakdown in questions related to vacancies.  Respondents are now being asked to identify whether the call for application for the indicated vacancy was still open on the reference date together with the level of education required from the candidate.

Refer to sections 6.3.3.1 and 6.3.3.2

Optional

Refer to the subsections below

JVS data is revised on a regular basis in order to be in line with updates provided in the target population. These updates are usually provided by JVS respondents or otherwise by the unit which is in charge of the Business Register. NSO has an internal data revision policy which we adhere to.

Refer to section 6.6.1.

Revisions are carried out on a regular basis at micro-level. Data pertaining to 2022 was revised during the course of the same year, due to updates in the target population as provided by the Business Register unit. Below is the percentage change in the figure of occupied posts for B to S for each quarter as per last transmission (Q1 2023 transmission). Changes are worked out with respect to the first time the reference period was transmitted:

Quarter 1 - -1.2%

Quarter 2 - 0.9%

Quarter 3 - 0.3%

Quarter 4 - 0.5%

Data collection starts during the first week following the reference date. Results are finalised by t+70 days.

JVS results are flagged as provisional pending any changes to the target population. 

Quarterly JVS data was transmitted on the following dates:

Quarter 1: 03/06/2022

Quarter 2: 06/09/2022

Quarter 3: 02/12/2022

Quarter 4: 01/03/2023

All transmissions took place within the deadline.

Not applicable

During 2022, the Labour Market and Information Society Statistics unit received an updated version of the target population and this necessitated the revision of figures pertaining to occupied posts for the period 2017 to 2022. Morever, in order to conform with the current JVS regulation, as from Q1 2017 sampled enterprises were asked to provide data for both employment and vacancies as at a specific reference date (the 15th day of the end of quarter month). Prior to 2018 the reference date was the 30th day of the quarter month. 

As a result comparability of data for units employing 10+ can be considered from 2013 onwards. On the other hand comparibilty for units employing 1 or more employees can be considered as from 2017.  

There is coherence between annual and quarterly results since annual figures are the average of the four quarters which are transmitted by this office.

As indiciated in the table below, discrepencies in employment levels between JVS and Natonal Accounts are a result of different estimation methods.  National accounts tend to use a mix of sources to derive employment whereas in JVS employment levels are mainly derived from respondent answers as well as PES register data for public sector.  As stated in section 8.3, there is no comparable information on vacated posts, hence coherence for this variable is not possible.

Data is checked in order to ensure that there is coherence between one quarter and another and consistency in the time series.

No news release was published at a national level.

There is no online database with JVS results.

There is no national online database with JVS Results.

No access to micro data is available.

No other format of disseminaton is available.

Documentation of steps for the provision of JVS results is available for internal purposes.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Even though the national Job Vacancy Survey is a very simple and straight forward survey, it is still contributing towards increasing the response burden on enterprises.

In order to reduce the burden and costs associated with this survey, the NSO carries out the data collection using mixed mode data collection, whereby a high share of data is collected by electronic mail. In addition, a number of non-responding units are contacted by telephone, in order to ensure a satisfactory response upon which reliable statistics can be compiled.  For units which can be retrieved from administrative sources, JVS data is derived directly from admin data.

Optional